foot it

present singular third person foots it · participle present footing it · participle past footed it · past footed it

1. To walk.

   At length, receiving his quarterly allowance of fifteen guineas, instead of discharging his debts he walk'd out of town, hid his gown in a furze bush, and footed it to London, […]

   1771–1790, Benjamin Franklin, “The Autobiography [Part 1]”, in John Bigelow, editor, Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. […], Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott & Co., published 1868, →OCLC, page 158

2. To dance.

   `'Tis melancholy work facing and footing it to one of your own sort, and no clasping and colling at all.'

   1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The Maiden), page 24

3. To drive quickly, with the accelerator down.

   The Mail would be footing it at fifty—maybe more.

   1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 54